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Archiver > ABOUT-WORDS > 2006-01 > 1136816625


From: Gordon Barlow <>
Subject: RE: German Indians? Indian Germans?
Date: Mon, 09 Jan 2006 09:23:45 -0500
References: <200601091000.k09A01x1000336@lists2.rootsweb.com>
In-Reply-To: <200601091000.k09A01x1000336@lists2.rootsweb.com>


> I was on St. Thomas about 26 years ago. I hired a driver to take me
around
> the island. He kept saying Wery for Very.
>
> Then it dawned on me that the island used to be owned by the Netherlands.
>
> Fred

It was the Danes, Fred - but same thing, more or less!

The v-w "confusion" is not unique to any language, I think. English
dialects cover the spectrum. Our modern spellings reflect the way the
literate classes pronounced words when they were first written.
Dickens's "Pickwick Papers" has a character who pronounced -v- as -w-,
which the author used for comic effect.

In Europe, the Vlach in the east became the Welsh of the west (and the
Vallands whose name became France; and Balts up north, and
Gauls/Galles/Kelts of elsewhere. All to do with local linguistic
preferences.

Gordon

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